The 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, November 14, 2021

Mark 13:24–32

Jesus said to his disciples: “In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

We are now two weeks from the First Sunday of Advent, and so the Church directs that the readings for Mass turn to the Last Things: Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.  As we prepare to celebrate the time when the Son of God was born on earth, so we at the same time prepare for his Second Coming.  It is necessary for us to begin to prepare spiritually for Christmas before the Season of Advent begins, which is the proximate preparation for it, if we are to celebrate it well.  A good book to use for this purpose is “The Incarnation and Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ” by St. Alphonsus Liguori, which is filled with meditations and devotions especially for this time of year.  It can be gotten cheap from used book stores online, and it must still be in print.

“In those days after that tribulation.”  According to the Fathers and the medieval writers, such as St. Albert, there shall be a short period of rest for the Church after the last and greatest persecution.  We can understand this passage as referring to the events following this peace.  “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”  At the beginning of time, as described in Genesis 1, these celestial bodies were created and set in their places.  At the end of time, since they are no longer needed, they will be “taken down” and go into non-existence.  “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”  The people left alive at the end of the world will witness a great scene.  Jesus Christ, victorious over death, will come out of heaven on the clouds for judgment.  The Fathers say that these “clouds” signify the saints and angels, for the Lord will assign some part of the judgment to them, as witnesses of his verdict (cf. Matthew 19, 28).  “Then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.”  According to St. Thomas Aquinas and others, certain angels have been chosen to go throughout the earth to reconstitute the bodies of all the dead so that their souls may be infused in them once again.  This will happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (cf. 1 Corinthians 15, 52).  They will then be gathered by the angels before the victorious Christ.  Here, the Lord speaks only of the resurrection of the elect, as those to be damned are not worthy of his attention.

“Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.”  The Lord wants us to know that there will be an end to the world, and how we can tell it is close.  Farmers watch the natural world very carefully because their crop depends on it.  We must watch the world around us in terms of its history and the signs the Lord has given us, for our salvation depends upon this.  “In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.”  The Lord refers to the sign of the last, terrible persecution, the defection of numbers of Church leaders, and the conversion of the Jews (Romans 11, 25-26).  

“Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”  That is, this age “will not pass”, for this is the final of the ages of the world.  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  For, as St. John will testify later of what he witnessed in a vision: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone: and the sea is now no more” (Revelation 22, 1).  The just will enter an entirely new creation.  “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  This is an idiom for how unknowable the exact time of the end is for us, for certainly the Son of God, equal in majesty and power with the Father, knows when it will be.  The main facts we need to know are that the end is definitely coming, and that we must be ready in our faith and good works.